Tuesday, 22 December 2015

On the publication of "In Defence of Songun"

I had long planned to write this book to defend the Songun idea and great Songun politics from attack by imperialist , reactionaries and revisionists . This became a matter of urgency In 2014 a certain internet and social media commentator produced a book called a “Marxist Critique of Songun “and promoted it heavily on social media including you-tube and facebook as well the internet. This book showed a woeful ignorance of the Songun Idea and Songun politics as well as the true reality of Peoples Korea under the Songun revolutionary leadership. I was angered that this charlatan and fake revolutionary had slandered the Songun Idea. In truth his book contained nothing new, simply a rehash of misinformation from the imperialist media as well as standard revisionist sophistries about the role of the military as well as extreme dogmatist arguments. Some of the material in the book was drawn from south Korean sources and the notoriously anti DPRK NKNews (a publication closely linked to the US CIA and south Korean NIS) A number of false arguments were used in the “Marxist Critique of Songun “, firstly it was claimed that Songun was only adopted in the late 1990s after the collapse of the world socialist market, that it was just a temporary tactic to cope with the frustration of socialism in parts of the world. Secondly, Songun is somehow opposed to the Juche idea. Thirdly, that Songun is based on “Confucianism “. Fourthly that Songun is stipulates that the military is a class. I was incensed by the news of the publication of this anti Songun, anti DPRK and resolved to write a book to defend Songun politics.My book refutes these sophistries. Songun was not a temporary tactic that appeared in the 1990s but the permanent strategic line of the Korean revolution which intimately bound up was the history of the Korean revolution. It goes without saying that Songun is an embodiment of the Juche Idea and cannot never be opposed to the Juche Idea!. Songun is a revolutionary ideology which is opposed to Confucianism and feudalistic ideas. Lastly Songun does not assert that the military is a social class, this formulation is to be found nowhere in the writings of the great leaders President Kim Il Sung, Chairman Kim Jong Il and respected Marshal Kim Jong Un. This is an invention of an ignorant person obsessed with dollars and easy money.
My book “In Defence of Songun “, gives a detailed refutation of these spurious arguments. Of course those who slander the great Songun idea are not new. When the terms Songun became widespread in use all of kinds of elements came out from the woodwork to attack the Songun Idea and Songun politics. First and foremost were the imperialists, particularly the US imperialists who hated and feared the idea that Songun politics was the cutting edge of the confrontation with US imperialism and that anti-imperialist countries would follow the example of the DPRK. The imperialists set in motion their pet bourgeois academics, including certain miserable old burnt out ex Trotskyites, the so-called experts, who are paid huge sums of money to slander socialism and live lives of comfort and ease, and hack journalists to attack Songun saying that it was 'military government ' and 'military rule' and talking about diversion of resources to the military. Some of these so-called “theorists” and “academics in fact gripped by Euro-centric chauvinism and quasi racism which causes them to despise the building of strong defence potentials by an East Asian country or indeed by any “non-White country “ .The slanders peddled by the academic hirelings of the imperialists and hack journalists constitute direct ideological attacks on the Songun idea and Korean style socialism by imperialism and its hangers on.
Some big powers express unease at Songun politics because they thought that the DPRK should not build up its defence potentials but instead rely on certain countries for its defence. Of course there are many examples which show relying on outside forces such as big powers does not work and does not bring victory in the revolution. The great leaders President Kim Il Sung came to realise early on that reliance on big powers is a mistake. During the harsh anti-Japanese revolutionary armed struggle some people had thought that the USSR, the first workers and peasants state, to supply a grenade factory but to the guerrillas but this was never materialised. During the Fatherland Liberation War against the US in the 1950s the Soviet Union was not able to deliver enough weapons to the DPRK in a timely manner. Some get upset when these facts are pointed out but they are true all the same whether some like it or not. In 1962 the revisionist Soviet Union under Khruschov betrayed revolutionary Cuba by withdrawing the missiles that it had sent thus leaving Cuba in the lurch. It is utterly useless to rely on another country for your own defence.
Revisionists and opportunists hated the Songun idea because they believed in capitulating to imperialism, in socialist countries disarming themselves in the face of imperialism and in the discredited so-called
'peaceful road to socialism '. In the UK some revisionists cling to the conception of the 'peaceful road' and 'parliamentary transition ' outlined in the document the so-called “The British Road to Socialism “first published in 1951, even though this programme has been shown up as a complete failure. The revisionists, flying in the face of reality still believe the illusory peaceful road to socialism and hate the example and theory of Songun. These revisionists found the DPRK's hard line against US imperialism and world imperialism too much to stomach. Moreover they believed that the DPRK should “reform “itself just like the USSR and Eastern European socialist countries. This would mean surrendering to imperialism and living the lives of colonial slaves.
Additionally some self-styled leftists in Western countries fretting over the question of the working class, feeling anxious about the idea of the military having precedence over the working class. Captivated dogmatism such people cavilled at Songun and believing that the theories of Marx and Lenin on the proletariat were absolute, unchangeable and eternally valid for all of time. Of course to say that something is unchangeable and eternally valid is unscientific and reactionary.
In essence the slanders and denigration against Songun politics by different elements whether they come from the imperialists and their accomplices or from big power chauvinists, or the fake Left, revisionists, opportunists and dogmatists, are all the same: they all serve imperialism and anti-socialism.
I had come to support Songun politics back in the early 2000s. I have read several articles about the Army -first idea in DPRK publications in the late 1990s. During my visit to the DPRK in April 2002 my guide Ms Pak Song Ok of of the Korean Committee for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries told me that the term for Army -first politics was Songun, when we saw the slogan “Songun Jongchi Manse! (long live Songun Politics!) chiselled on a mountainside (I believe at Mt Myohyang). Soon after wards the external publications of the DPRK started to refer to Songun politics. In January 2003 the great leader comrade Kim Jong Il published his famous work “The Songun-Based Revolutionary Line Is a Great Revolutionary Line of Our Era and an Ever-Victorious Banner of Our Revolution “I became gripped with a fascination for Songun Politics and the Songun Idea and decided to form a UK Association for the Study of Songun Politics though our resources were meagre and that we were one of the first in the world to form such an organisation. After discussions with my good friend and comrade Mr Shaun Pickford we formed the Association for the Study of Songun Politics on the 13th of August 2003.
It struck me that the DPRK alone was standing up to US-led imperialism that was trying to dominate the whole world, imposing the so-called “New World Order “and globalization on the world causing wars and chaos.
Since the frustration of socialism of the USSR and some other countries the US imperialists being more and more rampant invading other countries. There was the Gulf War or First Iraq war in 1991. The US intervened in countless countries such as Somalia, Yugoslavia,
Rwanda, Sudan and many others. The Yugoslav War was a typical example. Yugoslav was a multi-ethnic, multi-national state. After the frustration of socialism in the USSR, Yugoslavia (which had been ideologically weak and revisionist) too abandoned socialism. Serbian nationalists who were right wing and pro-US thought the US would now hand Yugoslavia to them and allow them to build a 'greater Serbia' on the territory of the old Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia but the US imperialists were having none of it, after the frustration of socialism the imperialists had little use for 'anti-communist dissidents' and also did not want a united Yugoslavia the US imperialists and European Union instigated separatists to break up the old Yugoslav Federation creating bitter wars and conflicts. Those who had looked to the US imperialists as their friend now found themselves being bombed by the US and its NATO in 1999. Some in Yugoslavia now believed that the Russian Federation was their saviour and that Russia would send military assistance. However no such assistance ever arrived and Serbia was left to fight on its own. The Yugoslav president Milosevic ended up being deposed and then kidnapped by the imperialists and taken to a kangaroo court at the Hague where he died.
In Iraq Saddam pledged who styled himself as anti-imperialist accepted no-fly zones imposed by the imperialists and basically disarmed Iraq only to be invaded and destroyed. by the Yankee imperialists, hungry for oil profits, and their so-called “coalition of the willing.”
Only one country in the world took a firm stand against US imperialism and did not harbour any illusion about US imperialism. That country was People's Korea, Korea of Songun led by great generalissimo Kim Jong Il the successor to the great leader President Kim Il Sung.
There is no doubt that without Juche and Songun the
Korean question would not be discussed in Pyongyang or Seoul or
Panmunjom but instead around a conference table in New York, Geneva ,
Brussels or London !
Songun politics is recognised the reality that socialism in not been in ideal and tranquil conditions or in co-operation with imperialism but in confrontation with imperialism. The building of socialism itself is a form of class struggle against imperialism. Not to recognise this basic fact is very dangerous and naive in the extreme.

The Songun idea is the best political mode for building socialism which faces the threat of imperialist aggression and attempts by the imperialists and class enemies to stifle socialism. It is those who advocate building socialism in co-operation with imperialism and world capital who are wrong. The Songun idea is a fully anti-imperialist, revolutionary and militant mode of politics. Songun is anti-revisionist it because does not advocate going down to the imperialists on a bended knee. And is based on the revolutionary soldier spirit a militant anti-imperialist class conscious spirit. Songun is not only fully consistent with class struggle, enhancing the class consciousness of the working class by infusing them with the revolutionary soldier spirit the highest form of class consciousness but is also the cutting edge of the anti-imperialist class struggle in the present era. Defending the Songun idea is a vital task for the revolutionary anti-imperialist people who uphold independence. As a long-standing advocate and student of the Songun idea I made up my mind to write a book in to refute all the slanders of the imperialists and reactionaries and defend the Songun idea and its practice, Songun politics against the calumnies of the reactionaries and opportunists. Defence of Songun Politics and People's Korea should be a must for all anti-imperialists and progressives..
My book “In Defence of Songun “is divided into several chapters, which are as follows “What Is Songun “, “Songun and Juche “, “Songun is totally anti revisionist and anti-imperialist”, “Songun and Class “, Songun and the struggle for building a powerful socialist nation of Juche and “Global Dimension of Songun politics. Each chapter aims to give an in depth look at the issues involved. The chapter “What is Songun “gives a basic but detailed explanation of the Songun Idea, it tells what it is and what is not and looks at the historical development of the Songun idea. The chapter Songun and Juche examines the inter-relationship between Songun and Juche. The chapter “Songun is totally anti revisionist and anti-imperialist” is aimed at refuting the base slander that Songun is somehow revisionist, it stresses that in fact Songun is intimately bound up with anti-revisionism and anti-imperialism. The chapter on “Songun and Class “ gives a detailed analysis of the relationship between Songun and class , the revisionist and opportunist enemies of Songun make false propaganda in relation to the question of the relationship between the armed forces and the working class but in fact Songun is about actually consolidating the socialist class position and defending the gains of the working class. This chapter was written because class contradictions assume a powerful centrality in the capitalist countries and many progressives ask about how Songun relates to class struggle. The chapter on Songun the struggle for building a powerful socialist nation of Juche looks at the achievements of Songun in the economic. The final chapter on the Global Dimension of Songun Politics looks at the role of Songun politics in international affairs and the anti-imperialist struggle.
Although my book leaves much to be desired and is imperfect due to lack of time et, I hope it will make a worthwhile contribution to defending the Songun idea from the slanders of the imperialists and their hangers on as well as being conducive to the further study of the great Songun Idea.